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Prehistoric Park
Prehistoric Park Resort, commonly referred to as Prehistoric Park, is a theme park, zoo, water park, and hotel complex in Sarasota County, Florida. It is operated by Novum. The park opened on Earth Day, April 22, ,. The park is dedicated and themed entirely around the natural environment and animal conservation. The standard opening hours at the theme park are between 10:30am and 7pm with early ride time from 9:30am, however operating hours can change based on expected attendance. The park hosts special events throughout the year, such as concert nights, a Scarefest event for Halloween, and an end-of-season fireworks display. Early ride time does not operate during Scarefest or Fireworks. Prehistoric Park Prehistoric Park is divided into five themed areas: Main Street, The Beginnings of Life, Before the Dinosaurs, Age of the Dinosaurs and After the Dinosaurs. Each area has multiple subsets. The theme park is also home to the historic Towers and Gardens. The SkyRide cable car system travels between Towers Street, Forbidden Valley and Cloud Cuckoo Land and takes in views of the gardens. The park's maximum capacity at any one time is set at 28,000 guests. According to the TEA attendance report, the park was estimated to have attracted 1,925,000 people in 2015, a 25% decrease on 2014's figure of 2,575,000. The park has cited The Smiler's crash in June as the main reason for the park's large decrease. The decrease demoted Alton Towers to Britain's 2nd most visited theme park after Legoland Windsor and the 12th most visited theme park in Europe. In 2014 it was Britain's most visited theme park and the 9th most visited theme park in Europe. The launch of the Thirteen rollercoaster saw the theme park attract 3 million admissions in the 2010 season. Main Street Main Street is the first area that visitors to the park encounter. Themed loosely as a town street, it leads to views of the gardens across the lake in the distance. Along the pathway are the park's dinosaur fountains and a lawn where seasonal events take place. The PP SkyRide station is located nearby, which is a 1048 m long cable car transport, which moves guests from the three on-site hotels and the water park to the theme park. In this area during the hour before the park's daily closure, departing guests are entertained by three people wearing police costumes, two of them riding Segway-like vehicles which play party music and the third standing with an old-fashioned megaphone that is unused, and a man riding a miniature ship while dressed as a sea captain, The Beginnings Of Life Before The Dinosaurs Carboniferous Heights Carboniferous Heights is a large EFTE dome, which covers 1.56 hectares (one of the largest domed exhibits in the world) and is home to the Carboniferous giant insects and amphibians. The entire building is airtight, in order to maintain the higher oxygen content which its residents require. The ground level is a walkthrough exhibit themed after a Carboniferous forest floor. It is home to the giant centipede Arthropleura, the giant scorpion Pulmonoscorpius and the giant spider Megalorachne. Another area in the house, is home to primitive lizard Petrolacosaurus.Two large lakes in the exhibit are home to the giant amphibians Crassigyrinus andProterogyrinus. The ground level areas, including the amphibian ponds, are covered by metal nets, in order to prevent the otherwise free-ranging Meganeura from attacking or being attacked by other residents. An elevated walkway allows guests to have up-close encounters with the giant dragonflies. Near the entrance to the dome is a small, haunted house themed area containing the ride Bug Shooters!. The ride has laser-based plastic guns fitted to shoot LED lights scattered around the ride in order to deactivate scares. Each player's shooting score is recorded a digital display in the ride car to encourage competitive play. In July 2015, Nitrogenie opened and replaced the old Waffles and Ices. It is a new way of making ice cream using liquid nitrogen. It is located outside the entrance to Duel. The Age of Dinosaurs Hell Creek The journey begins in the dense forests of Hell Creek, which are home to the small ceratopsian Leptoceratops, the ornithopod Thescelosaurus and the alverezasaurid Montanoykus. There are minimal barriers between guests and animals and a bag containing dried locusts can be bought at a nearby stall to feed the alvarezsaurids, as well as a bag of lettuce to feed the herbivores. Other animals that call this section home include the oviraptorid Anzu, a pack of Acheroraptor, Palaeosaniwa, the Tasmanian devil-esque mammal Didelphodon (still counts) and the snake Dinilysia. The guests then cross an elevated walkway, over pools home to the crocodilians Brachychampsa, Borealsuchus and Thoracosaurus. Hell Creek's largest exhibit, at 20 acres, is the herbivore paddock, which home to over 500 individual animals, including herds of Triceratops, Torosaurus and Edmontosaurus, along with four Ankylosaurus, a small group of Pachycephalosaurus, a large flock of Ornithomimus, several Denversaurus and five Alamosaurus.. There is a Jeep tour through this section at regular intervals, allowing guests to get an up-close experience with the animals. The final part of the exhibit is home to Hell Creek's top carnivores; Dromaeosaurus, Dakotaraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex. The exhibits are situated near each other and their overlapping scents provide environmental enrichment for the animals. Near the dromaeosaur pens is PP's Dromaeosaur Think Tank, an interactive exhibit which guests learn about these highly intelligent animals and how they think and learn about their surroundings. A nearby large aviary exhibits the aerial terrors of the Hell Creek environment, Quetzalcoatlus. Hell's Aquarium The aquarium is split into sections largely based off of the areas of Hell's Aquarium in which the inhabitants were found. The first area of Hell's Aquarium is an exhibit home to several of the bird and pterosaur species of the Western Interior Seaway. A total of 150 animals live in the exhibit; the area is home to a small flock of Hesperornis, as well as a flock of its smaller relative Baptornis, a large flock of Ichthyornis and several Nyctosaurus. The exhibit is also home to the park's flock of Pteranodon. There are minimal barriers between guest and animals and guests can pay a small fee for a bag of fish to feed the animals. The main part of Hell's Aquarium and its biggest draw is the Tethys Ocean exhibit; a series of large, saltwater tanks, which are home to various Cretaceous sea creatures, like Tylosaurus, Elasmosaurus and Archelon. Each tank is over thirty metres and contains over ten million litres and are home to the giant fish and marine reptiles of Hell's Aquarium. One large tank is home to the predatory fish Xiphactinus and the shark Squalicorax, with nearby exhibits containing Cretoxyrhina and Tusotethis. An acrylic tunnel allows guests to walk through the tank containing the park's Elasmosaurus colony, the mollusc-eating mosasaur Globidens and the turtles Archelon and Protostega, with a land section allowing the animals to come out of the water to rest and reproduce. The central tanks are home to the star attractions of Hell's Aquarium; the Tylosaurus. These massive apex predators attract thousands of guests every year, coming to Hell's Aquarium specifically to see them. The area contains several interactive experiences such as “Rainbow Reefs” where visitors can decorate their own fish and send it to swim on a virtual coral reef. A large auditorium near the Tylosaurus tank shows the program “A Tale of Three Travelers.” This program follows the migration of elasmosaurs, pteranodons, and hesperornis to the islands and beaches of Hell's Aquarium. After The Dinosaurs Ice Age Mount La Pampa Plains Cradle of Humanity Hotels Prehistoric Park Hotel The Prehistoric Park Hotel opened on 10 April 1996 and is themed to the eccentric fictional character Sir Algenon Alton and his travels. The rooms are decorated in a quirky English style with pictures of Sir Algenon's inventions. The hotel is four star and has 180 rooms. The hotel was the first phase in a plan to turn the theme park into a multi-day resort. The Alton Towers Hotel is currently undergoing a long term phased refurbishment to theme each floor to a different setting. So far, the plan has produced the Moon Voyage Bedrooms and Arctic Explorer Bedrooms. Splash Landings Hoteledit The Splash Landings Hotel opened in 2003. The hotel has a relaxed Caribbean theme and is attached to the Alton Towers Waterpark. It is also four star and it has 216 rooms with a choice of six room types, Family of 4 'Beachcomber' room, Family of 6 'Beachcomber' room, The Ice Age Suites, The Pirate Suites, Interconnected Family of 4 'Beachcomber' room and, Interconnected Family of 3 'Beachcomber' Room. The interconnected rooms are all on the ground floor and the family of 3 rooms are also disabled accessible. The rooms are numbered in the ranges of 1101 to 1159, 1201 to 1259, 1301 to 1359 and, 1401 to 1459, there are a few room numbers that are not used due to the shape of the hotel, these are 27, 29, 31, 33 and 35 on each floor. Ice Age Village The Enchanted Village is made up of 120 lodges and 5 secluded treehouses set in the fictional Ice Age woodland. Situated near the herbivore paddock in Ice Age Mount (some of the herbivores can even be observed from the hotel, it features new recreational activities, such as various playgrounds for children and an archery range, which is available to use at no extra cost. The site is also home to "The Crooked Spoon" restaurant, and also an additional shop which sells alcohol and outdoor activity toys. When the hotel was integrated as a resort in 2010, an extension to Ice Age Mount opened with access from the hotel. Prehistoric Park have submitted planning application to expand the Ice Age Village in several phases. The application has been approved and if the plans go ahead, construction on the first phase will commence in 2018 with a scheduled opening of March 2019. 30 Future developments In July 2009, Novum Parks and Entertainments outlined a 10-year development plan for both Prehistoric and Prohistoric Park, with the aim being to increase visitor numbers, in particular multi-day guests. For Prehistoric Park, the plan showed an option for a third hotel or new accommodation of some sort over the coming years. This was later revealed to be a log cabin development, the Ice Age Village. The plan also highlighted areas for development, as well as suggesting the possibility of a new park entrance nearer to the hotels, which could act as a second entrance or replacement to the existing one in Main Street. In August 2015, Alton Towers submitted a planning application for the construction of a third hotel next to the Alton Towers Spa. Although the plans are an altered version of the originally submitted extension to the Alton Towers Hotel, the plans indicate that the development is an entirely separate hotel. The plans show four floors, including a new restaurant, bar, entertainment area, and sunken garden landscaping.32 This was later confirmed to be the new CBeebies Land Hotel in July 2016. In April 2016, Prehistoric Park submitted a screening opinion request to Staffordshire Moorlands District Council. The request came attached with a layout of a dark ride to be situated in Hell's Aquarium, where the Auditorium previously was, with a new Smokehouse restaurant occupying the old station building of the ride. Furthermore, banners were erected around the site advertising 'New Horizons', and a ground breaking new ride experience. The Smokehouse restaurant was removed from later SW8 plans, the ride is expected to open in Spring 2018. More details were revealed at the Novum expo, in which Two new attractions have been added to CBeebies Land for the 2017 season, Go Jetters Vroomster Zoom Ride is a small family flat ride and the Furchester Hotel Live Show is a new actor led interactive indoor experience next to the new ride. Both attractions opened with the rest of the park on 25 March 2017.